BMW WilliamsF1 Team-French GP-Final Qualifying

French Grand Prix  -  FINAL QUALIFYING
5th July 2003

Weather: dry, overcast. Air 22°C Track temperature 30°C

Magny-Cours (FRA) Even though the BMW WiliamsF1 Team¹s drivers were amongst
the first out on circuit this afternoon, they both qualified on the first
row of the grid for tomorrow¹s French Grand Prix. Ralf Schumacher achieved
his 3rd pole of the season, bringing his career total up to 4. This is the
second time this year that Ralf and Juan Pablo will line up on the front row
of the grid, the last time being Canada.

Ralf Schumacher:    1st
Chassis:  FW25 07 
Best time: 1:115.019. min
"I¹m delighted with my pole especially when I think that I went out fourth
when the track had not reached it¹s optimum condition. My lap was reasonably
clean but it wasn¹t the best lap I¹ve done due to some understeer in the
third sector of the lap. It¹s obviously positive to be nearly half a second
in front of my brother¹s Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen¹s McLaren Mercedes. I
hope we will convert this 1-2 into an even better result than we had in
Canada, where we finished 2nd and 3rd."

Juan Pablo Montoya:    2nd
Chassis: FW25 06
Best time: 1:15.136 min
"All in all it was a positive qualifying for me. If you look at this
morning¹s times, I was about seven tenths slower than Ralf and it looks like
I have now closed the gap to him slightly. The car wasn¹t handling
particularily well during my fast lap causing me to lose some time. I¹m
pleased Ralf and myself are on the front row and I think that the Michelin
tyres have the upper hand over the Bridgestones here."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"It was again a good effort by the team to put both cars on the front row
again after Canada. The car is really competitive here and this is a credit
to all the people working in the factories in Grove and in Munich. We are
definitely looking forward to a strong race. It¹s also great for Michelin to
be on the front row of the race for their home Grand Prix."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"For the fourth race weekend in a row we are very competitive in qualifying.
It reflects all the hard work that is being done by the team and it¹s
partners. In Magny-Cours, the aerodynamics play an essential role so it¹s
obvious WilliamsF1 have made enormous progress during the last few weeks.
Another part of the success belongs to our tyre partners, Michelin. In free
practice it looked like the car¹s fast but also both of our drivers do very
well here, the small gap between their times shows this."